SINGAPORE – Despite global conviction, the city-state sentenced a mentally disabled man convicted of drug trafficking to death more than a decade ago in Singapore, in one of the most notable executions in decades, his family said.
Nagaantran Dharmalingham, 34, was hanged for trafficking three tablespoons of heroin early in the morning in Singapore, which has a zero-tolerance drug policy and the world’s toughest penalties for non-violent drug offenses.
Dharmalingham, a Malaysian citizen with an IQ of 69, said he had to swap a pack of heroin in 2009 to pay off his debts. Her mother said to him that she would use the money to help him. On a trip from Malaysia to Singapore, the heroin was seized at the checkpoint attached to the hip.
“My brother had a very tender heart. “He trusted everyone,” Dharmalingham’s brother Navi Kumar told the Washington Post. “Yesterday he told me that I was fine, that I had a good heart. “Even if I’ve made mistakes, I’m a good person.”
In Singapore, a mentally disabled man was sentenced to death for smuggling 1.5 ounces of heroin.
In her final appeal in December, her mother said she had “interfered with her criminal activities and was sentenced to death because she had a disability that affected her judgment and judgment.” He was first sentenced to death in 2010.
But on Tuesday, authorities rejected the mother’s request for an 11-hour pardon. Dharmalling then asked the judge to speak in court and touch family members.
“This is my greatest wish,” he said through an interpreter. He captured her mother through the crack in the classroom glass pane.
Declaration of Შi November Singapore’s Ministry of Interior said it was aware of the illegal nature of Dharmalinga’s actions, justifying that the appeals had previously been dismissed. “It was a deliberate, intentional and deliberate decision.”
His decision has been condemned internationally by governments, human rights groups and celebrities.
Ravi Madasami, the former Dharmalingham lawyer, said he has never seen such a massive protest against the death penalty. “This is unlike any other case I’ve seen,” he said. “I was extremely devastated and crushed. “It is incredible that today a mentally ill person is hanged in a city like Singapore, which should be a modern city.”
In a statement released before the executions on Monday, the United Nations called for an end to the repression, stating that “the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses is incompatible with international human rights law”.
Singapore says the use of the death penalty in drug trafficking cases is governed by international law if due process is followed.
The case drew undue attention to its death penalty laws, the conservative and harsh criminal policy that made Singapore famous in the 20th century. The small island nation is one of those countries that imposes the death penalty for drug offenses, a practice that hinders its efforts to become a modern global hub in Asia.
During the 12 years that Dharmalingham was sentenced to death, Singapore revised its mandatory death penalty laws, giving judges the power to commute the death penalty to life imprisonment. Singapore has suspended all executions for nearly two years due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The government has not pardoned the death penalty since 1998.
But the death penalty was reintroduced in March and authorities hanged a 68-year-old man for drug trafficking. Dharmalingham’s execution is one of two scheduled for this week in Singapore. Dachinamurti Kataya, another Malaysian citizen convicted of drug trafficking, is also facing a recent hanging.
Authorities say the death penalty curbs drug trafficking and makes Singapore one of the safest places in the world. The opium trade declined by 66% in 1990 after the introduction of the mandatory death penalty for more than 42 ounces (1.2 kg) of the drug. According to a 2019 Interior Ministry survey, around 70% of Singaporeans agree that the death penalty is more effective as a deterrent to drug addiction than life imprisonment.
But gradually a disagreement arises.
When Dharmalingham awoke in Singapore, more than a dozen activists gathered to pay their respects, gathered around an open box decorated with flowers, and discussed how his case had received unprecedented attention in the fight to the abolition of the death penalty.
“It is now recognized that the death penalty should be abolished,” said Rocky House, 27, an activist who helped organize Dharmingalm’s first wake. We will fight harder and will not stop until we are removed.
300 men gathered on Monday to protest Dharmalingham’s candlelit execution. His petition for pardon on the Change.org petition also garnered 100,000 signatures. Even British billionaire Richard Branson weightedOn Twitter, he asks the president of Singapore to save the life of a prisoner.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Branson described the death penalty as a “terrible stain” on Singapore’s reputation.
“I think civilized countries shouldn’t be involved in killing their own people or killing anyone,” he said.
Source: Washington Post
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
